June 26, 2008

BERKELEY - Two Golden Bears were selected in the NBA Draft Thursday, with forward Ryan Anderson going 21st to the New Jersey Nets and center DeVon Hardin No. 50 to the Seattle Supersonics.

Anderson is the ninth first-round pick in school history, the first since guard Ed Gray went No. 22 to Atlanta in 1997 and the highest since Shareef Abdur-Rahim went third overall to Vancouver in 1996.

This also marks the first time since Jason Kidd (No. 2 to Dallas) and Lamond Murray (No. 7 to the Los Angeles Clippers) were chosen in 1994 that two California players were chosen in the same draft.

A first-team All-Pac-10 player in 2007-08, the 6-10, 240-pound Anderson led the conference with 21.1 ppg and ranked third in the league with 9.9 RPG. He declared for the draft after playing two seasons in Berkeley.

Anderson is the ninth first-round pick in school history and first since guard Ed Gray was taken No. 22 by Atlanta in 1997.

Anderson finished his two-year career with 1,236 points - most ever by a Cal sophomore and No. 16 on the school's all-time list. He had 697 points and 328 rebounds last year to become the first 600-300 player in school history. In addition, Anderson ranks sixth at Cal in three-point shooting (39.6%), third in free throw accuracy (81.4%) and ninth in three-pointers (122).

During the 2007-08 campaign, Anderson poured in 697 points, second only to Lamond Murray's 729 points in 1994 for most points in a season at Cal, while his 328 rebounds were the most for a Bear since Mark McNamara had 341 in 1982. In addition to first-team All-Pac-10 honors, Anderson was named a second-team All-American by The Sporting News. He reached double figures in scoring in every game, scoring at least 20 points 18 times and 30 or more on four occasions with a career-best 36 points at Nevada. His 64 three-pointers ties for No. 2 on Cal's season list. A two-time Pac-10 Player of the Week, Anderson was voted team Most Valuable Player at the end of the year.

As a freshman, Anderson led the Bears in both scoring (16.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.2 rpg), ranking fifth in the Pac-10 in both categories - the only player in the league to finish in the top five in each area. He set a school freshman record by grabbing 269 boards during the year, breaking the mark of 256 set by Leon Powe in 2004, and his 58 three-pointers were the second-highest Cal freshman total ever. He reached double figures in scoring 30 times in 33 games and was named to the all-tournament team at the Pac-10 Tournament after he averaged 20.7 ppg and 11.7 rpg in three games.

DeVon Hardin

Hardin, the No. 2 shot-blocker in school history with 132 to his credit, completed his career ranked 13th in rebounding with 649 boards. He led Cal in blocks his final three seasons, including a high of 48 as a sophomore in 2006. Hardin's career field goal percentage rate of 51.7 percent is seventh all-time at the school.

Hardin initially declared for the NBA Draft after his junior year in 2006, but did not hire an agent and eventually elected to return to school.

As a senior, Hardin averaged 9.3 ppg and 7.4 rpg, shooting 55.4 percent from the field. He grabbed at least 14 rebounds in Cal's first four games, becoming the first Cal player to have 14 or more four games in a row since Darrall Imhoff in 1959-60. Hardin started the season with 18 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks vs. Southern Mississippi and capped the run with a career-best 16 rebounds at Nevada. Other strong games came against Missouri, when he had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and vs. Washington at home, when he finished with 18 points and 13 boards.

Hardin's junior year was shortened to just 11 games due to a stress fracture to his left mid-foot suffered vs. Furman. Prior to season-ending surgery, he averaged 10.7 ppg and 8.4 rpg and was named to the all-tournament team at the Great Alaska Shootout.

Hardin ranked among the top five in the Pac-10 in both rebounding (5th, 6.6 rpg) and blocks (4th, 1.55 bpg) as a sophomore in 2005-06 when Cal reached the NCAA Tournament. He broke his career scoring high in consecutive games vs. Long Beach State (14), Northern Colorado (21) and Northeastern (26), adding a personal-best 14 points vs. Northeastern to earn both MVP of the Golden Bear Classic and Pac-10 Player of the Week.